Ireland - The Wild Atlantic Way

I don't think Richard is too bothered, I have a few routes put up for West Cork a few years ago, it's easier to have fun writing a post than reading one.
No offence Richard this is true for anyone.

I looked through back to 2016, choosing posts from the general Travel section (there being no dedicated UK / Ireland sub-section before Friday) that looked typical of the type of questions bods ask. If you’d like me to trawl further (and providing they are in the Travel section) I can copy across highlights. By all means PM me the web addresses. Thank you.
 
Photo number 1, I re-roofed the highest building in that photo, Clenough, Beara, the village died out after a boat load of fishermen drowned. Falling for a Dancer was filmed there. A TV series that made it onto the BBC in the Year 2000

I remember you telling about this place at the time, you live in a wonderful place :)
 
Thanks all. If only the world were as keen on sharing ideas on Wales....

Timolgra and myself, at the very least, want to keep the best bits free from foreigners and suvverners. :D :augie
 
Timolgra and myself, at the very least, want to keep the best bits free from foreigners and suvverners. :D :augie

I've lived worked most of my life in Wales, you're right, it's mainly the the Southerners :D
 
I looked through back to 2016, choosing posts from the general Travel section (there being no dedicated UK / Ireland sub-section before Friday) that looked typical of the type of questions bods ask. If you’d like me to trawl further (and providing they are in the Travel section) I can copy across highlights. By all means PM me the web addresses. Thank you.

Apologies, I will make a route sometime Richard and message it to you, I only have a very old version of mapsource though as I no longer use or need a Garmin GPS.
 
Apologies, I will make a route sometime Richard and message it to you, I only have a very old version of mapsource though as I no longer use or need a Garmin GPS.

Great.

It should be OK if it was made in Mapsource, irresepective of its age.

I'll PM my email address.

Richard
 
Place is amazing, ive done the full route and tip into parts of it each year, the Dingle Peninsula in Kerry and Achill Island in Mayo(Keem Bay) are my Favourite. Plenty of camping on both spots and majestic places in between. Very friendly locals and sure a beer is never far away.

Pic 1 is Achill Island
Pic 2 is Keem bay from the main road in
Pic 3 I think is Sligo or there about

Ive a fair knowledge and happy to help out if anyone wants guidance.

I personal prefer South to North, I generally pic the area I want to spend a few days in then shoot the motorway to the next place I want to see
 

Attachments

  • 797E85A0-1491-460E-9418-086F3B4154F2.jpg
    797E85A0-1491-460E-9418-086F3B4154F2.jpg
    250.5 KB · Views: 527
  • 74AFA9E7-02BD-420D-AEAF-5734A7B58713.jpg
    74AFA9E7-02BD-420D-AEAF-5734A7B58713.jpg
    250 KB · Views: 457
  • 588369B3-773C-45B2-AA58-31890ADB6024.jpg
    588369B3-773C-45B2-AA58-31890ADB6024.jpg
    214 KB · Views: 489
Thank you, Anthony.

Looking at this thread and others, what has become obvious to me is that my knowledge of the island of Ireland is pretty poor. Not so much the shape of the place in general, where Dublin and Belfast are, the area designated ‘Northern Ireland’ or the changeable weather or near enough what the scenery looks like. It’s more where the counties are in relation to each other and (more importantly perhaps) where all the smaller towns like, Wexford, Cork, Bantry (though I knew that has a bay), Killarney, Galway, Westport and Sligo are situated. Laziness on my part, but probably more down to where I live than anything else. To get to Ireland, Wales or Scotland from central London is a full day’s schlep, sometimes on not the most exciting of roads. Cornwall, the same. In a little over two hours I can be trundling under the Channel, well on the way to Calais, France and the rest of mainland Europe. In short, I didn’t ‘need’ to go to anywhere else in the British Isles, when the whole of Germany was little more than a day away at most.

It wasn’t until last September that I spent any time at all in Scotland. Yes, I trundled along the NC 500 in a motorhome but why not? It is why the tourist board made the route, as a simple (basic) snapshot of what Scotland has to offer. The islands I missed completely; that doesn’t matter, I know they are there and that they won’t go away in my lifetime. Wales, I don’t think I have ever been to on a motorcycle and only ever to watch rugby. Ireland, the same. I have seen more of Italy, than I have of the ‘home countries’ that make up four of the six nations. People can knock threads like this and say, “It’s all been done to death”. Yes, it very probably has by you, but not by everyone else. Yes, there is a ton of information available on the internet, just as there is about Australia, Brazil, Kazakstan and no doubt the 53 moons of Jupiter, too. But, it’s not until I took the trouble to look for myself that I started to see it all properly and start to understand what is on offer. Will I ever see it all? No, not in what remains of my lifetime, so there is no danger at all of me ‘doing it to death’. Has it given me (and I hope others) some inspiration to at least fill some significant gap in my understanding as to what lies not so very far away, if I simply join the A5 or A1 instead of the M20? Yes.

My thanks to all that have contributed, to the chat I had with ChasMill yesterday evening and the other offers to assist that I have received. Hopefully, when I make an effort, I can go to see some of it for myself..... and yes, I’ll still somehow still miss out the ‘best bit’, inevitably. Someone always does.
 
Last year for work I visited a number of customers in NI and one between Letterkenny and the North Coast, I stopped at Arnold’s in Dunfanaghy, the four day trip gave me a taster of what’s out there. A little like Richard I’m embarrassed to say I’ve seen more of Belgium than The Emerald Isle. I really hope to fix that in the coming years.

I had tentatively thought we might do the WaW in 2021, but much of 2020 calendar has or will likely be decimated so it might get pushed back further.

Thanks to all who have contributed.
 
Give me a few days and I’ll put together detailed plans. Maybe someone might take a snippet of info from them
 
Yes wild camping is allowed, if you do find yourself lost most farmers are fine as long as you ask permission first. But to answer your question wild camping is allowed
 
2006 was in the Republic with the wife on our FJR1300.
My main memories are:
Galway town, so alive.
Connemara, so wild.
Everyone we met was so friendly.
Roads not that good. The signposts are in kilometres and if you think of it in miles you'll get your journey times right.
At the age of nearly 60 had my first pint of Guinness.

Want to go back. Wife no longer rides pillion so will have to be in the car.

tom
 
Great thread, cheers Richard and look forward to your planning post Anthony. ( I cycled SW Eire in 1995 for a week, did a 5 day motorbike tour in 2008 and another in 2012 but feel the need to do a longer one sometime soon)
 
Thanks all. If only the world were as keen on sharing ideas on Wales....

Although I'd wish to share the entire veritable hidden delights of Wales with the world, do date, it's all saved in my head. :D

I sincerely apologise that, to date, I don't possess a cloud drop box to provide you with my global GPX routes; tour itineraries; photos; tour videos. :(

Anyway, in the meantime, here's my contribution re' Ireland WAW from April 2015. Moreover, if anyone would like any further detains including GPX files, just send me a PM. :)
 

Attachments

  • WAW Tour April 2015.jpg
    WAW Tour April 2015.jpg
    245.7 KB · Views: 431
Quick access via motorways across the country

Purely highlightening the roads to make ground fast and get to other counties, ill do more detailed routes and specifics too.

South
Ireland….. well she is a hidden gem an Emerald to be precise. We have Dublin as the capital where the ferries come to and from daily. Dublin provides easy access to most parts of the country, heading south head for the M50 then M11, always worth heading into the Wicklow mountains for a 2 hour spin. Redcross has a very popular camping facilty https://www.rivervalleypark.ie/ , by now you are in South Wicklow and near Wexford. Hook Head a nice place to see

S1.jpg

S2.jpg

North
Heading north from Dublin you can gain quick access to the North of Ireland which holds some very majestic scenery, The M1 is the road to take through Drogheda, Dundalk and brings you over the border to the A1 and if followed onto Belfast. Continue on to Antrim to see the famous Giants Causeway.

N1.jpg

N2.jpg


West
Going West from Dublin take the M4 to the M6 and cut right across the country. This will get you to Galway and leave you well places to head North or South on the Wild Atlantic Way.

W1.jpg
 
Although I'd wish to share the entire veritable hidden delights of Wales with the world, do date, it's all saved in my head. :D

I sincerely apologise that, to date, I don't possess a cloud drop box to provide you with my global GPX routes; tour itineraries; photos; tour videos. :(

Anyway, in the meantime, here's my contribution re' Ireland WAW from April 2015. Moreover, if anyone would like any further detains including GPX files, just send me a PM. :)

Overview.
 

Attachments

  • WAW Tour April 2015 Overview Days 9 of nine.jpg
    WAW Tour April 2015 Overview Days 9 of nine.jpg
    158.6 KB · Views: 444
Days 3 to 6 of nine[/QUOTE]
 

Attachments

  • WAW Tour April 2015 Day 3 of nine.jpg
    WAW Tour April 2015 Day 3 of nine.jpg
    160.4 KB · Views: 424
  • WAW Tour April 2015 Day 4 of nine.jpg
    WAW Tour April 2015 Day 4 of nine.jpg
    149.2 KB · Views: 425
  • WAW Tour April 2015 Day 5 of nine.jpg
    WAW Tour April 2015 Day 5 of nine.jpg
    154.5 KB · Views: 428
  • WAW Tour April 2015 Day 6 of nine.jpg
    WAW Tour April 2015 Day 6 of nine.jpg
    143.9 KB · Views: 428
Days 7 to 9 of nine
 

Attachments

  • WAW Tour April 2015 Day 7 of nine.jpg
    WAW Tour April 2015 Day 7 of nine.jpg
    158.7 KB · Views: 432
  • WAW Tour April 2015 Day 8 of nine.jpg
    WAW Tour April 2015 Day 8 of nine.jpg
    150.8 KB · Views: 430
  • WAW Tour April 2015 Day 9 of nine.jpg
    WAW Tour April 2015 Day 9 of nine.jpg
    156.9 KB · Views: 411


Back
Top Bottom